


Trailblazing

by Puffinpastry



Series: DragonSpawn [4]
Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Background Graig | Hendrik/Homer | Jasper, Domestic Fluff, Dragonspawn AU, M/M, Named Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Original Character(s), This is your fault., You know who you are., egg, egg jokes, magical baby acquisition, original child character - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26875711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puffinpastry/pseuds/Puffinpastry
Summary: “An… egg?”It was heavy in his arms, as if it was truly made from the gemstone it resembled. A soft turquoise that faded gradually into a deeper shade, and interspersed with veins of pure gold.Valuable was the first word that came to mind.Though… Erik could quell any thoughts of selling it for the knowledge of the dragon growing inside.
Relationships: Camus | Erik/Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI)
Series: DragonSpawn [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703605
Comments: 11
Kudos: 27





	1. Special Delivery

**Author's Note:**

> It is hatched.
> 
> Now I only have a vague idea of where this is going, and only a few story beats to hit so no chapter goal for now.  
> The planning for this has been chaos, discussing it has been a traveggsty, and I hope it remains to be such.  
> I apologize for no egg puns or jokes.  
> You will take them and you will enjoy them.

Cobblestone was quiet. 

The time between seasons always was, the villagers taking time to themselves, working quietly on their own fields in preparation for the next planting season. Or, simply turning over the soil to let the land rest for winter. 

The harvests were done, festivals all passed, and all that was left was waiting out the snow.

Well, all but one celebration had passed.

One, that they were toeing the line for missing.

It was hard, keeping in touch properly once everything had settled down, and they could all move on with their regular lives. Letters oftentimes got lost, and life had a tendency to ust get in the way. 

But they could all clear away one day a year, at the absolute least.

One day to celebrate everything that they had survived. 

But they were, as always, late. 

It almost seemed by choice at this point, between wings and zoom, there really was no excuse to be late four years in a row.

El didn’t bother yelling at Erik again. He would be ready when he was ready, and no amount of arguing or prodding would make the man leave before he decided to.

He knew that much by now.

It wasn’t even as if he was doing anything important.

The autumn was only just coming to end, and they would have all winter to map out their next course. 

A rough draft, Erik would call it. 

All too careful after their first expedition on their own, lost in the barren mountains without any sense of direction.

Sure, they had zoom, but…

The magic took the magic out of exploration, didn’t it?

Another winter to wait out, and another path already marked in ink. Rumors about non violent, if not oddly behaving monsters written in the margins of a notebook, and an entire new adventure just waiting for spring. 

And El, sitting out in the growing cold, and waiting for Erik to get off his ass. 

“Where are the two of you heading off to next?” Jasper sat on the stone fence, twitching in the dirt.

A small kitten chasing after it, back and forth.

El grinned, even knowing that the other dragon would be able to tell. He could pretend all he wanted that the litter a stray had all but left at his doorstep annoyed him to no end, but everyone knew the truth. “Phnom Nohn is next.” 

“I thought you hated that tourist trap.”

“We do. Not… Not a lot of good memories.” Jasper knew the story, now. Well, he knew the same story as all the others, about Dora-in-Grey. “But you know about the ruins? Erik and I have a theory that it was once home to the Dragonspawn. Or, at least some of them. Krystalinda doesn’t recall anything about it, but the architecture looks a lot like what Erik saw inside-“ He cut off, just a little too late.

“Inside?” Jasper asked, prompting him to continue. 

“I… Don’t recall.”

Jasper gave a disbelieving huff, but didn’t press.

That was one thing El liked about his company. If El didn’t want to share, then he didn’t demand it. And he gave the same courtesy in return.

“Any luck so far?” They both had things they’d rather not speak about. Even if those things were vastly different… They could respect that.

“Not as such.” El answered easily. Jasper knew already about the efforts to learn about the dragonspawn. Knew that King Carnelian has already lent out the work of an entire platoon of his men. Something of an apology, but El didn’t stop to question his motives. “The ruins are still pretty blocked off. Maybe by this time next year they’ll be safe enough to explore.”

“Hmph. If I was in charge they’d already be cleared out. Who do they have running those soldiers these days?”

El laughed. “Keep talking like that and you’ll be the old man Cole thinks you are.”

“That child will call me a grandpa no matter how I speak. I merely need to stop letting it bother me, and he will stop.”

“Good luck with that.” 

A cold wind whipped through the small village, the first taste of the winter to come. 

Snow and ice and weeks of near-brumation on the horizon…

Even if it was only for a day, El couldn’t wait to be in the warmer weather of Puerto Valor. 

The winters had been easier with Erik around… But they still weren’t what he would call enjoyable. 

But even as he held his own coat tighter, Jasper hardly reacted.

It would be easy to assume that he was closer in species to Krystalinda than he was to El, but it wasn’t so simple.

He had been created, rather than born. With no dragon blood to call onto. And no real interest in finding out what he was capable of, what his new limits were. 

And as if on cue-

“I don’t need it.” Jasper complained, but it was already too late. There was a scarf tossed over his shoulder, made from thick enough wool that his spines wouldn’t be tearing it up immediately.

“I do not need you catching cold. You are insufferable enough as is.” It had taken some time to get a textile strong enough to take that kind of wear, but at least it made it easier to enchant. 

Though seeing someone like Hendrik spend his time with a crochet hook and yarn… 

It really put into perspective just how much everything had changed.

“Bastard.” Jasper muttered, but without any real venom to the word. There hadn’t been any for ages now. Well. Aside from his  _ literal  _ venom, that was an entirely different discussion. And emergency visit from Serena. “Warm clothing does nothing for me, if you’ve forgotten.” 

“A bastard that doesn’t want you sick. Wear the scarf. It’s enchanted.”

Jasper continued to mutter to himself about overbearing mother-hens, but neither took any notice.

Between the both of them, dragon to dragon and dragon to bondmate… He didn’t mean a word of it.

“Good morning, Hendrik.” El stood, dusting off the loose soil. 

“Elwood. Good, I was hoping that you and Erik would be home soon.”

“We’ve been back.” El said, “Still waiting on Erik. With any luck we won’t be  _ too  _ late, this time.” 

But Hendrik was hardly complaining.

They wouldn’t really miss it, and being late hardly mattered. 

It  _ had,  _ in the earlier days… But Cobblestone had been good for them both. Living in such a sleepy little village… It rubbed off fairly fast.

He and Jasper never did go back to Heliodor, finding the tranquility of Cobblestone a much preferable way to spend their lives. 

They’d had enough of knighthood and royalty and war.

Now… They were more than content with their cabin and garden, farming just as all the others did, and kind enough to watch over El’s in the months they weren’t home.

“He is mapping out your next course?” 

Predictable, by now. “You have told him we’re late? Do you want me to try?”

“You’re welcome to.” El said, and within a few minutes Erik was dragged from their home, and the lot of them were zoomed to Puerto Valor. 

And the moment solid ground was again beneath his feet, and the cold of Cobblestone had vanished… 

El breathed a sigh of relief.

It might just be for the day, but he would enjoy the warmth while it lasted.

But in that moment, the magic impossible to miss, Sylvando spotted them, and Erik and El both were wrapped in a bear hug.

“Oh, thank the heavens! Thought you would never show.”

“Haven’t missed one yet.” Erik wheezed, still less-than-thrilled about being bodily carried away from his work desk. 

“You haven’t missed one  _ yet.”  _ Sylvando let go, and El could once more breathe. “But you’ve missed other things. I still can’t believe you missed my last birthday. A milestone, and the both of you nowhere to be found.” 

They weren’t truly offended, El knew, but the dramatics still made him feel bad for missing it, even though he and Erik hadn’t been missing on choice. 

“We couldn’t predict that cave-in.” Erik said, popping the tension in his neck with a sound that made El wince. 

“Oh, you know I’m only joking.” Sylv said as if they weren’t bothered at all by it, “I’m just happy to see you all, come on now, everyone else is waiting.” 

They join the party, and Veronica seeks them out. She’d been growing like a normal child, and while they don’t understand the curse placed on her, it hardly seemed to be slowing her down.

On the contrary, looking all of twelve years old and quickly making a name for herself as a magical prodigy. 

And startling the daylights out of the adults around her whenever she opened her foul mouth to tell them off. 

And stomping over to them now, staff thankfully tucked away somewhere safe and  _ not  _ about to make a brand new dent in any skulls-

“It’s about time you three showed up! Even if you two are too busy fu-”

_ “Veronica!”  _

“-The least you could do is be considerate of Hendrik’s time. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be held up by your nonsense.” 

Foul mouth. Just like El had said. 

But even though Serena still tried to prevent, or at least censor, the worst of what she said, they were all accustomed to it by now. 

And El… Was just glad that Frizz was too small to pick up on any of her language just yet. 

Smaller now than El’s smallest form, and in every way like an excitable young dog.

Hatched only two years ago now, and a bright, brilliant red. Two tiny horns that curled like a ram’s, and a light membrane to his wings…

They did say that pets looked like their people. 

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, squirt.” Erik laid a hand on the baby dragon’s head, and it immediately began rumbling happily. “And you too, Frizz.” 

“Oh,  _ shut up!”  _ Veronica yelled, and with no further preamble, the two of them were off. 

It never did take all that long for them to get into one argument or another, and they had almost eight full months of missed bickering to catch up on.

So…

Erik now busy for the next couple hours or so, El did a quick scan of the area. Rab and Jade would be somewhere nearby… It  _ had  _ been a while, and that wasn’t fair to any of them. He needed to see if he could get an update on how Dundrasil was moving along, and he was sure Jade could use a laugh or two, or even just a new story.

From all of hers… Being Queen of a peaceful kingdom was ever so boring. 

As Veronica continued to tell Erik off, El caught sight of a very familiar blue turn from around the corner.

Leaving the empty training grounds. 

Dressed in a knight in training’s uniform, a sword strapped to her hip.

“Mia?” El said under his breath, seeing her the moment she saw him, and realized that she was unavoidably, irreversibly, fucked. 

Jade would have to wait.

_ Erik…  _ El cut through his husband’s current nonsensical rant,  _ Shouldn’t Mia be at the Academie?  _

He knew that she should be, the hours he and Erik had spent convincing her to at least give school a  _ try…  _ Not to mention the gold they’d funneled into her tuition… He knew for a fact she shouldn’t be in Puerto Valor.

But just in case…

Erik cut off mid sentence, and followed where his dragon was looking.

His face darkened, and his mouth shut with an audible click of teeth.

It wouldn’t be the first time they’d caught her sneaking off.

But this was a far cry different, and a far cry  _ further  _ than when they’d happened upon her and another student taking a sick day over at Phnom Nohn. 

And the downright  _ murderous  _ look on Erik’s face was enough to silence even Veronica.

But she didn’t need to turn around to guess what had changed.

“Well.” She said, “That’s one way to get the news.”

_ Over here.  _ El told her.  _ Now.  _

With an exaggerated groan he could see but not hear, Mia dragged her feet over, and stood-

At attention.

“What are you-” Erik tried to scold her, and was prepared to have to leave the gathering to take her back to school, but Mia cut him off.

“I dropped out.”

“You  _ what?”  _

“Dropped out,” Mia repeated, as if Erik simply hadn’t heard her rather than the fact he couldn’t believe her. “I argued for a refund and came here.”

“Mia.” El tried instead, “You agreed to go for an  _ entire  _ four years. You can’t just…”

“I can. And I did.” Mia cut him off too, then smiled at the person walking towards them “Sylvando helped me.” 

“Sylvando-” Erik started, all sorts of questions forming, but not one given the time to be voiced.

“You know very well how I feel about being forced into a life one doesn’t want.”

“But-”

They were paid no mind, and some little, distant part of El’s mind took notice of the giant grin that Veronica wore.

Perhaps not by her own doing, but Erik was finally speechless. “Mia, sweetheart, what do  _ you  _ want to do?”

“Fight.”

“Fight!” Sylvando exclaimed, as if it was the most wonderful answer she could have possibly given. “And just  _ look  _ at her? Doesn’t she just look fantastic?”

“Mia-“ El tried.

“And my papi was ever so kind to take her on as a student! And she’s been doing so very well!” 

“I’m gonna fight. Learn to be a knight here, then who knows?”

“Mia.” Erik found his voice, but nothing to say with it.

“Maybe I’ll go to Octogonia. Make a name for myself. Or just join the royal guard somewhere. Maybe be a mercenary…”

“Mia!” El and Erik both said at once, all exasperation. 

She was openly grinning. Inescapable lecture or no… She knew she’d gotten her way. “Is it the money? I can give you back what they returned to me, but it isn’t all of it. But I’m not going back.”

“No…” Erik groaned, dragging a hand over his eyes. “I don’t think they’d take you back. Even if we paid triple.”

Mia just  _ beamed.  _ Problem student no more. 

“Yanno if you’d just  _ listened  _ to me before, you could’ve avoided all this mess.” 

“Is this  _ really  _ what you want?” Erik asked, “You liked traveling with us, and if you’re a knight…”

“It wasn’t as if I could travel as a student.” Mia said, “And knights get moved around. I’ll figure it out. I mean, worst comes to worst I can always come home, yeah?”

“Of course you can.” El assured her, “But that isn’t the issue. We just want you to-”

“Be happy? Well, I think this is what’s going to do that.”

Erik looked like he wanted to say something more… But thought better of it.

They could both talk to her later.

When they didn’t have an entire audience. 

“I'm sorry to interrupt,” Serena said, stepping carefully in between her sister and Erik, “But… This is fairly important, I’m afraid.”

“Something bad?” Erik asked, eyeing the basket she held. 

“Not bad at all!” She said, following it up a little less cheerfully, “I don’t think it’s bad, at least. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just so glad you two are here!”

“We weren’t going to miss it!” Erik threw up his arms, now that even  _ Serena  _ was bugging him about their tardiness… “We never miss this!”

“Oh! No, no that’s not it. I missed you at home a few days ago… And I just- Here,” Serena life’s the contents from the basket, and carefully unwrapped the plush blanket from the mass, and laid it carefully into Erik’s arms. Not letting an inch of support go until she was sure he had it safely.

But seeing it didn’t answer any questions.

“An… egg?”

It was heavy in his arms, as if it was truly made from the gemstone it resembled. A soft turquoise that faded gradually into a deeper shade, and interspersed with veins of pure gold. 

Valuable was the first word that came to mind. 

Though… Erik could quell any thoughts of selling it for the knowledge of the dragon growing inside. 

“Turn it over,” Serena urged him, “It’s not just an egg.” 

With an uneasy feeling, Erik moved the egg as carefully as he could, not sure exactly what all this movement would be doing to the baby inside-

But as it flipped, and the reason Serena had brought it to them in the first place was shown…

“Oh.” El breathed out.

There wasn’t anyone else she could have brought it to.

Suddenly the gold veining looked dull. 

Nothing in comparison to the mark of light stamped across the surface.

And Mia, peering over her brother's shoulder, just had to ruin it. “Holy shit. El, did you  _ lay an egg?”  _

_ “I-”  _ El’s voice cracked from the mood whiplash, unable to correctly process the change between the wonder from the egg in Erik’s arms, stamped with  _ his  _ mark - and being asked if  _ he himself  _ had laid the egg like a chicken. 

He- he didn’t have  _ the parts!  _ “I didn’t!”

“I found it just about a week ago,” Serena, bless her kind heart, said instead, drawing the attention away from El’s quickly reddening face. “With a different clutch of six that had been laid. It just appeared from thin air, and it doesn’t look like any of the other eggs at all.”

“Then how did it get there?” Erik asked. 

“Are you really not listening? She just said it appeared! We don’t know where it came from but…” Veronica shrugged, nearly displacing the tiny dragon whelp wrapped around. “It’s got the mark of light on it for all to see. Where do you think it came from?”

“Yggdrasil?” El asked, reaching over Erik’s shoulder to run a finger down the gem-like shell, finding it to be just as rock-solid as the real thing. 

“That’s our theory.” 

“Alright, then.” Erik said, hefting the egg up a little, shifting the weight into one arm, and laying the blanket back over it. “Guess that’s everything, then?”

“You- you’re  _ taking  _ it?” 

“Well… Yeah?” “Why else would you bring it to us?”

“To- So that we could test El’s powers on it?” “Do you even know how to care for a dragon egg?”

“You want to test El’s powers on it,” Erik said slowly, “But you’re worried about us messing up?”

“Well- I- Oh,  _ nevermind.”  _ She gave up. “Here,” Veronica, standing on her toes, pushing a basket into El’s arms. A basket he nearly safe under.

The body of a preteen or not, she was much stronger than she looked. “I brought some of this for Frizz, but… You’ll be needing it more than me, and I can always go get more.”

“What is all of this?” So asked, trying to recognize at least  _ some  _ of the contents. There was a jar that had something…  _ moving  _ in it. Erik was about to ask when El caught sight of it. “Is- is that  _ lava?”  _

“Lava lumps. Don’t worry, the glass is enchanted. It won’t break and it won’t melt. It’ll help keep the egg warm. There’s also some dried moonwort, some sparkly sap, buzz berries, though I don’t think the egg will be wanting any treats anytime soon. Toad oil, arsenic-”

_ “Arsenic?”  _ El’s voice rose in pitch, “Why are you carrying around  _ arsenic?” _

Veronica heaved a great, exaggerated sigh. “All this time. And what you don’t know about dragons  _ still  _ manages to surprise me.”

“How am I supposed to know how to take care of an egg?” El asked, “I never knew  _ corrosive and toxic  _ substances were good for eggs!”

“For  _ all dragons,  _ you dunce. Just- if the shell starts looking dull, use the arsenic. Your skin should be fine with it, El. But Erik, do  _ not  _ touch it! If you see it dry out, toad oil. Use the lava lumps to help keep it warm, and  _ do not  _ under any circumstance let it get cold!” 

“I can’t remember all that!” El said, feeling just the  _ slightest  _ hint of creeping panic. 

“I’ll write it down then.” Serena offered, “It really isn’t all that difficult. If you want to take it, then you’ll do fine.”

“As much as I  _ want  _ to say you’ve taken good enough care of El-” 

_ “Hey-”  _ El gave a half-hearted attempt to defend himself.

“It’s just an egg. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” 


	2. By Yggdrasil’s Holy Cloaca!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was a beat of silence, and Erik finally looked up to see that El had stopped looking over the handwritten notebook on egg-rearing he’d opened for the hundredth time. He muttered something just a little too low for Erik to make out, and his shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh.  
> “Erik,” he said without turning to look at his husband, “I love you, but what in Yggdrasil’s name is wrong with you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains but one of the many questionable conversations about dragon egg logistics I have had over the exceedingly long process of making this fic.  
> I think you’ll know it when you see it.

Of all the things Erik could have expected to come home with…

A dragon egg would be written nowhere on that list. 

But here he was. Having just cleared away all the maps and notebooks he had left strewn across the table to make room for a baby basket.

A  _ baby basket,  _ with a  _ dragon egg  _ in it.

That-

That was going to take some time to get used to. 

But at least he was more grounded than El was at the moment.

His nerves and racing thoughts were a distracting undercurrent to his own thoughts, each spike twisting his own stomach just a tad bit more.

Erik didn’t try to look any deeper, to see exactly what the dragon was thinking about.

He didn’t need to be a mind reader to figure it out.

Elwood would calm down eventually.

And in the meantime… “So.” Erik caught El’s attention, “Mia.” There were plenty of things to discuss, things to take his mind away, to let it drift and settle, but this was one conversation he wanted to get out of the way.

Not really sure what to say, be it about one thing or another, he let El start.

It took a moment, but El took the bait, leaving the table to stand closer to the window.

It was getting dark out. Colder. Maybe Erik should start a fire. “Are you really surprised?” El finally asked.

“Well…” Erik trailed off, actually having to take a moment to think. But in the end… “No, I guess I’m not.”

“Disappointed?” El suggested instead, as if he couldn’t read exactly how Erik felt.

But that wasn’t the point.

Even if things seemed clear over on his side, sometimes they were still murky on Erik’s. Yet to be properly explored. 

“That she lied? Yes. That she left the academy…” 

“If it’s what she wants…” El looked away from the village outside their window, and back to the warm light of their home. Erik had left the basket to stack firewood in the wood stove, firewood he would surely be asked to light.

Whatever. It wasn’t as if it was any real work. Less than digging around the mess to find the flint. 

“Yeah.” Erik felt more than heard the dragon step up behind him, and he moved out of the way. One good, strong ember, and the wood took fire. “I guess you’re right.”

But as Erik stood up and away from the flame, he didn’t look away from it. 

El reached an arm around his shoulder, and Erik let his dragon draw him in, and wrap a wing around. Let himself melt into the touch, and rest his head on El’s shoulder, and let him try and lift his worries. “She should be safe. Not all that much danger left out there.”

“No monsters.” Erik could admit. They’d made sure of that. But even so… “But there are monstrous people.” They both knew better than most the truth in that statement. 

But Mia was tough. She could handle whatever the world threw at her, be it an apocalypse, the loss of all she knew, the complete change of how her own body looked...

She would be fine. 

“Maybe she’ll change her mind again. Who knows, maybe she’ll end up back here with us.”

“Maybe.” Erik conceded. While she hadn’t, and now they knew why, they had kept her room for her. Ready for her school breaks, ready for whenever she wanted to be home again. 

There would be no reason for that to ever change, but… 

Erik doubted it. If this is what Mia wanted, then she could have it, no matter how much it would worry him.

Even if it meant she had a home in Puerto Valor, in Heliodor Sniflheim or  _ wherever  _ she ended up, one she made herself. 

But that was it for Mia, and his own worries no more settled.

And from the feel of it… Neither were El’s.

Erik lifted his head, and El let him go. The fire roared, but they wouldn’t be sitting around it tonight, be it cooking, working, or simply resting.

It was a funny thing, to be somehow too tired to rest.

Erik returned to the table and continued to unpack the mess around the egg, placing the last jar down on the table. He could feel El’s eyes on him, and he could feel the swirling confliction in his partner's mind. “Is something wrong?” Of course there was, but… It was always better to ask than to just assume. 

And though it still sometimes took some prodding to get El to properly open up, he didn’t tend to hold his thoughts in close. Not anymore. 

“Why did you take the egg?”

Erik had known it would be the egg that was bothering him, but he hadn’t been prepared for El to sound so  _ lost.  _ “What do you mean why?”

“Just that. They just wanted to let us know about it, but you…” Took it without a second thought. Even after Veronica explained that hadn’t been her intention. 

“Are you upset that I did?”

El shook his head, and came to stand on the other side of the table, looking down at the basket. The expression on his face torn. He didn’t quite grasp the things he was feeling about it. “No, I’m not. Just… A little confused. Do you  _ want  _ it?” 

“I mean…” Erik shrugged. He didn’t take it out of greed, or for some need of a pet. “I don’t know. I guess?”

He didn’t want to move it around too much after the day they’d had, zipping from town to village, carting it around their little reunion, as brief as it had ended up being. “It’s not like it’s a human baby, just a dragon.”

_ “Just a dragon.”  _ El mimicked him with an uncomfortable laugh.“Erik, have you  _ seen  _ Frizz?”

The first of many dragon whelps Veronica planned on raising, and more trouble than Erik could really see the worth in.

Sure, a labor of love, but the scratches and the long nights, the cleaning and careful note of every last thing it did, the  _ fires  _ it set… Yeah… 

“Did you forget the stories Amber has told you about raising  _ me?”  _ El asked, then frowned as Erik grinned. No, he wouldn’t forget. He wouldn’t  _ ever  _ forget the mental image of a tiny little dragon Elwood with still-green walnuts on each growing horn, tucked on tight to prevent any more accidents. “If you wanted a pet we could’ve taken in one of Sandy’s puppies.  _ A dragon…”  _

So that was really the problem. Not that Erik wanted it at all, but that it was a dragon at the end of the day. “You know I thought you would’ve been more excited about this.”

“Why?” El asked.

And Erik… Wasn’t too equipped to answer. All he really had to go off was how he acted around Frizz, the gentle way he had held the whelps in Arboria, the way he didn’t mind the little ones up in the Skies Above.

He’d really just made too many assumptions. “No real reason.” Erik finally settled on. “Come on,” he said, leaving the egg on the table, assuming it to be safe enough there, with the heat of the lava lumps and the warmth of the fire. “I’m exhausted. We can worry more about the egg in the morning.”

~~

And worry… They did not. 

After all, it was hard to worry about an egg in the other room, when it was now perfectly within sight. 

Morning sun washing their room in yellow light, Erik woke just to find the blue egg settled into a soft nest constructed of a spare blanket, and snug between them both.

Even though he distinctly remembered leaving it on the table.

“El?” Erik’s voice was cracked from sleep, but it didn’t stop El from hearing, or frowning in his sleep as he was poked at. “What’s the soft-boiled egg doing in the bed?”

El only made a frustrated sound, unwilling to wake to the cold morning, and wrapping himself closer around the egg, knees encroaching further to Erik’s side of the bed.

_ Hm.  _ Well, it certainly didn’t  _ walk  _ into their room. “You fuckin’ chic-”

_ “Don’t  _ say it.” El warned him. Short and deadly serious. 

But Erik wasn’t one to listen. “Don’t say what?” He asked, “‘Chicken?’”

He was fully prepared to dodge the tail that tried to strike him, even if that dodge at this angle meant ending up on the floor, on his ass.

As he stayed on the floor, El’s tail remained where it stopped, the end spine hanging off the edge as El pushed even further onto Erik’s side. He  _ could  _ kick up a fuss and get his spot back, but… “Alright, then. Laze about, you’ve got all season.” Erik pushed up off the floor, and lifted up the wing that had come to cover El’s eyes. 

As if that thin little membrane actually blocked out light. 

“Hmph.” Awake and unwilling to admit it. 

“Think you could get up for some tea?” Erik offered. “How about breakfast?”

One purple eye peeked up at him. 

“Alright. I’ll get it started. You just drag your ass up whenever you’re ready. Oh, and bring the egg. Might could make use of it yet-”

The wing was ripped from his grasp, and a low growl sounded from El’s chest.

Erik left the room without any further prodding. He knew when to stop, especially around this time of year. 

~~

“So someone had a change of heart.” Erik said to the simple observation of El, still half-asleep and in his pajamas, but cradling the egg like a child. 

“Shut up.” El said, paying him no mind as he crossed the icy stone floor in his bare feet — as if the idiot  _ wanted  _ a cold — to place the egg back in it’s basket. “You couldn’t hear it.”

“Hear what?” Erik asked, turning away from the grits bubbling away on the stove. They wouldn’t burn. Yet. 

It was more important to watch El lay his head on the table, but still hold to the basket with one hand.

A complete turnaround from how he’d seemed to feel the night before.

“Crying. It was lonely.”

Said with such certainty, Erik didn’t laugh. But still, he waited for the punchline. And none came. 

“...It’s an egg, Firefly.” He said slowly, to the silent room. “It can’t cry.”

El sat up, and rested his chin in his hand. “It can, and it was. Sounded like a hurt fledgling, right in my mind.”

“I must’ve slept through it.” Erik said, accepting the fact that the egg could make noise. Somehow. Really, he didn’t know all that much, did he?

“No.” El said, glancing into the basket. “You couldn’t have. Trust me.”

Something about that - if El was this sluggish not from the cold, but simply that sleep deprived from having to listen to the crying of a dragon all night...

“So what do we do? Should we take it back to-”

_ “NO!”  _ El was on his feet in a second, standing so suddenly that the bench he’d been sitting on pushed across the floor with a screech. His eyes were wide, talons dug into the wood of the tabletop and wings lifted. It took a moment before El returned to himself, and Erik again found the ability to breathe. “I- sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay. We already took it, we don’t have to take it back.” 

Erik said nothing of the outburst. 

There wasn’t any need. Twitchy and clearly upset… He didn’t want to worry El. 

And besides… Aggression wasn’t what was just shown. He wasn’t afraid that El would hurt him, that he would try to fight.

What El just did… Was easily more comparable to a cat bushing out its fur, a snake shaking its tail in dry leaves. 

_ Keep away.  _

But again… It wasn’t as though El was afraid of him, either. An instinctual reaction, and one that they would both be prepared for in the future. 

So many things that neither of them knew to expect, answers to questions they didn’t know they needed to ask. 

It was with uneasy movements that El settled back down, picking up the bench from where it had toppled over, tail and wings drawn in close. Hyper aware of them now. 

Erik tried not to wince at that. It always took him a few days to get back to normal after an outburst like that. 

Even if he did know that Erik wasn’t afraid… It didn’t do much to bury the reactions of those that  _ were  _ scared. 

“Good. It’s- I didn’t like it yesterday, and I didn’t know why, but…” El trailed off with a helpless shrug, incapable of explaining what he himself didn’t really understand. 

“But?”

“I heard it cry,” El said, “and I knew right away what it was feeling. Now… It’s mine.”

Erik managed a small smile. “Well I mean, I did kinda make that choice.”

“No.” El cut in, staring off into nothing as he looked down at the table. Trying to find the right words. “No, I know you did. But that’s not what I mean. I don’t want anyone touching it. It’s  _ mine.”  _

All the emphasis on that last word. Said with the same possessiveness reserved for only a handful of things, and only a handful of people. 

One night, and the egg had easily cemented itself into El’s hoard.

Or, just maybe, it had just placed itself right into his family. His nest. 

Which just brought it all full circle, didn’t it?

“And you don’t want me calling you a hen?”

“Erik…”

“Fine, fine!” Erik agreed. No chicken jokes. Easy enough. There were plenty of other jokes he could make. “No chickens.”  _ Egg came first, anyway. _ “But don’t worry. The Omelette can stay.” 

Finally, Erik turned back to the stove.

Just in time to see the grits burned and sticking to the sides of the pot, never to come off again.

_ “Fuck!” _

~~

“There is something unusual about this egg.” Jasper spoke up, and caught Erik’s attention from where it had been up in the air, trying to find its way back into the sky. 

He hadn’t  _ meant  _ to space out in the middle — or, beginning of Hendrik’s overly detailed, monotone lecture about… About… Shit. 

He hoped that Hendrik wasn’t expecting any real kind of feedback. 

“What does that mean?” Erik asked, pleased to find that no one had really been speaking, the evening tapering off into a comfortable silence.

No bugs to sing in the winter, and everything silent under snowfall.

Right. That’s why Jasper and Hendrik were still here. They’d just wanted a closer look at the egg, after Erik had mentioned it seeming to have doubled in size in the few months they’d had it. Hardly the first snow but so far one of the heaviest they’d had so far. 

Meaning to  _ wait it out.  _ As if the two of them would get bogged down in the short jaunt between their home and the one they sat in now. 

El shuddered as he caught sight of the blizzard outside. Not a shiver from cold, as if he even had the ability, but more just from the proximity to the powdery white gathering on the ground.

He’d be all but useless until it all melted.

And- sparing a glance back at Jasper… Yeah. He actually couldn’t fault the two for hoping this storm would fizzle out. And it wasn’t as though they would be any trouble. They had the space to spare for the night, if it came to it. 

“Something… inside. I’m not entirely sure.” Jasper explained, without clarifying a thing. 

Erik was used to the both of them, these days. Live and learn, forgive and forget and all that magic, but he wouldn’t ever learn to love the bullshit way Jasper spoke in riddles, all vague nonsense or more complicated words Erik swore he only used to make himself seem smarter. “Care to be a little more specific?”

“It’s not…  _ Bad,  _ sort to speak. Just… Odd. In a nice way, though.” Jasper said, and though Erik waited for him to continue, he did not. Instead just sitting calmly by the egg, lapsed right back into silence, listening to nothing. Or whatever it was he  _ could  _ hear that El apparently could as well. 

“What.” Erik asked the room at large, hoping for any extra help.

Glancing between El and Hendrik, it didn’t seem as though he was going to receive any. 

El brightened after a moment, moving from where he’d been resting against Erik to get up and sit instead by the table with jasper. “I think I know what you mean.” El ran a careful hand over the shell as he sat. The egg didn’t need anything today. It had a bright crystal sheen, and a healthy glow. Somehow. Erik didn’t quite know how to describe any part of it besides just ‘egg’ and ‘rock.’ Occasionally ‘shiny’ or ‘dull’ on more creatively gifted days. “Just something… Familiar.” El finished, looking as if he had solved a particularly difficult puzzle, tail curled up towards the end in a way Erik could read as happy.

But still, he was left in the dark. “What?” He asked once more, reviving no more explanation from the two dragons, and just more confusion radiating from Hendrik. But that was more or less normal. No one really needed a bond to know when that man was lost.

But then it clicked. “Oh, I see.” Was it right? Very possible. Would speaking it aloud exile him to the couch? Also possible.

“This makes any kind of sense to you?” Hendrik asked, glancing at him from the corner of his eye. 

“Sorta. It’s a dragon thing, isn’t it?” Erik resigned himself to whatever his fate might be. Elwood was no animal, and as much as Erik wanted to hold on to his mistrust of Jasper, neither was he. But there was no denying the things that set the dragonspawn just that little bit apart. Protectiveness was one thing, and Erik would be willing to bet… “There’s a new baby, and you’re a coupla’ broody hens!”

_ No chicken jokes.  _ But what an easy rule to break. 

Jasper’s face darkened, and he saw the end of El’s tail begin to twitch back and forth.

But he didn’t shoot him a glare, or have anything to say for the forbidden nickname. 

Erik didn’t know if that was a good or a bad sign.

“Hens?” Hendrik echoed, and Erik regretted the joke. 

_ Here we go…  _

“In what way do they resemble chickens?” 

Erik got up before either dragon could get too upset, and they had to deal with smoke and poisonous fog on  _ top  _ of a snowstorm. 

“Nevermind it.” Erik said, squeezing between El to take the egg out of its nest. But… When they no longer had an audience, Erik would be sure to share  _ all  _ the similarities. 

And now that the poached egg was in his own arms, El relaxed. It was safe before, but even safer now. 

Perhaps even enough to sate his anger for the time being.

_ Instincts.  _ Fun things, weren’t they?

Only- El wasn’t just calm. He was still. One hand on his arm, and Erik could have flinched from the cold.

Seriously, just a few moments away from heat, and the floor had sapped all the heat from his skin. Really, they needed a rug. 

“Go sit back down by the fire before you keel over, dumbass.”

El nodded, and went back to their seat. Now, without Erik there he was free to lounge, pulling his legs up onto the cushions and resting back against them.

Maybe it would be better for him to spend the night by the fire, the first real blizzard was always more difficult…

But, no. Erik knew he wouldn’t. He and over-easy both would take their normal spots.

And speaking of over-easy… looking down at it, he frowned. It had been getting dull as of late, much faster than it used to. 

Maybe he should talk to Veronica. 

“Hold on, let me just…” 

“What is that for?” Hendrik inquired, looking over the many jars and boxes gathered on the table.

“Not really sure. We were just told to use this if it ever got dull.” Erik answered before the lid came off, and he saw how little actually remained. “Almost out. Could probably get some more easy, but…” Erik trailed off. He could get it. Easy. 

But leaving El in this weather, alone with the egg? 

He was probably worrying over nothing, but at the same time, what if something  _ did  _ happen, and he was off in the foothills searching for any toads stupid enough to brave the frosts?

“Just let me know what it is, and I will get it for you.”

“Thanks, Hendrik.” He said, grateful once again for such a simple favor, and finally comfortable accepting them, knowing that he really wasn’t doing it for any gain. 

He didn’t know how something could feel like solid rock and still seem so very fragile. 

As if a single touch just a hair’s breadth beyond gentle would shatter it into little more than dust.

But he knew now that simply wasn’t true. While that didn’t give him the leeway to be  _ rough  _ with handling it, Erik knew that it would not, in fact, break if he didn’t go over it as slowly as he possibly could.

Which he was endlessly grateful for, considering how awful the stuff he had to slather over its surface was, and it already took enough time to go over the gem-like surface and get every edge and divet. 

Which begged the thought… Wouldn’t laying an egg like this hurt like hell? Or was the inside of a dragon’s… Er… A  _ whatever-orifice-the-egg-came-out-of  _ scratch-proof?

Either way… He’d had this thought, and he wasn’t going to be the only one suffering for it. “Hey, El?”

“What is it?” 

“Do you think laying eggs is painful for dragons? Or do you think their uh… What’s it called? The same as a bird’s?”

Erik didn’t need to see El’s face to know the exact one he was making, or to feel the absolute  _ dread  _ that came along with answering. “The cloaca?”

“Cloaca! Do you think it hurts them, or do you think their cloacas are sharp-proof?” Setting the egg back down in it’s basket, cushioned by a down-feather pillow and warmed by the enchanted heat spells… A possibly  _ worse  _ idea occurred to him. “Or do you think the eggs are squishy coming out?”

There was a beat of silence, and Erik finally looked up to see that El had stopped looking over the handwritten notebook on egg-rearing he’d opened for the hundredth time. He muttered something just a little too low for Erik to make out, and his shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh.

“Erik,” he said without turning to look at his husband, “I love you, but  _ what  _ in Yggdrasil’s name is wrong with you?”


End file.
